Haalvut fin Lok
by Tyranidlord
Summary: So do Dov (Part 15) In the months since Kaius, Sofia, Lydia and Serana's escape from Blackreach, they will have to face the demons and legacy of Serana's past if they are to retrieve the bow and stop the Tyranny of the Sun prophecy from being fulfilled...
1. Haalvut fin Lok

They staggered blinking, squinting into the pale morning sun, shielding their eyes from the reflections of snow-capped peaks and dew covered grass. Yawning at their backs, the cave entrance remained still and as unmoving as the mountain that it resided within but none of the group gave as much as a glance at it. Instead they revelled in the feeling of the sun on their flesh, and the sensation of sky above their heads rather than hundreds of metres of rock.

As Serana watched, Sofia wasted no time moving over to the largest, and more importantly, _softest_ collection of grass before discarding her travelling pack and flopping onto her back.

"This almost makes those caves worth it."

Kaius and Lydia moved past, ignoring Sofia as she exclaimed happily and stretched her spine until it audibly clicked. The dew soaked her clothes and cloak and quickly left all of their boots and shins gleaming with the moisture, but it wasn't the only liquids they were covered in. As Sofia relaxed, Kaius was already scraping the dried blood off his armour with a moistened tip of his cloak, and Serana watched in silence.

"How long do you think we were underground for this time?"

Looking up from where he was collecting the dew on his cloak, Kaius shrugged and continued in his attempts to cleanse his armour of blood. "Two or three days at most." Slowly, he rubbed at his breastplate in distaste before giving up. "Troll blood is always difficult to clean."

"At least they were little trolls." Echoed Sofia's voice from the knee deep grass. "At least, little in comparison to _Cuddles_."

"All trolls are little compared to Cuddles." Lydia replied, her voice cold as the air but without any signs of malice or annoyance. Unlike the others she was standing still, her travelling pack still strapped to her spine, shield slung over her shoulders and axe at her waist. Since their successful escape from the depths of the world after the ill-fated Alftand expedition she had traded in her badly dented and battered armour for a thicker, stronger set of scale mail. Each of the metal pieces had been riveted to a suit of chainmail, and despite the initial appearance of flexibility that it provided, it was stronger and sturdier than most plate. Just like Kaius' own set of armour, Lydia's proved that Adrianne in Whiterun knew her craft.

It was not the only new addition to Lydia's outfit since Alftand. While subtle, the changes and personal touches that the housecarl had affixed to her armour were highly noticeable. The bear skin cloak hanging over her shoulders was easily the first thing to draw the eye but if one's gaze lingered over the paws that hung over her armoured pauldrons and onto her chest it was almost impossible not to notice a set of different trophies. Hanging from a leather cord or otherwise spliced through the thin strip itself was a grisly collection of teeth that faintly _tinked_ against the metal scales with every movement. There were over two dozen of them; all tiny but sharp like daggers and enough to draw blood.

To the ignorant they would have conjured visions of the fangs of a vampire, but compared to the three centimetre fangs within Serana's mouth and the impressive specimens that Kaius had when he relinquished control to the beast they were unimpressive. Only themselves and the handful of other survivors of Alftand knew that the teeth came from the mouths of Falmer, and they were also the only ones who would have recognised the central fang having once belonged to a Charus _Reaper._

_None of them had come out of the depths of the world unscathed_ Serana mused to herself as the dour housecarl poured the contents of a pouch into a gauntleted palm and begin to sort them. Each of them had found their own ways to cope with the pressures and terror of the _Underdark_ and the horror that was the Falmer, and Lydia had taken to claiming trophies from the things that she had slain. Like the bearskin and the necklace of teeth, the bloodstained pouch was filled with her new spoils of battle and she watched as the housecarl picked the better troll teeth from her collection and discarded the rest.

She knew that she was not immune to the… _hardening_ that they had experienced from Alftand. There was no longer any fear in her at the darkness in her soul. She had seen things in the Underdark as they sought a way to the surface in the Kingdom of Blackreach that had lessened her fear of her darker side and had forced her to confront and accept it. There were indeed worse things within the depths than vampires and the like of Molag Bal and they all had been affected. Lydia had her trophies, Serana had accepted her vampirism and even Sofia had been forced off alcohol when her supply had run out and had been forced to face the shadows of her dreams. Only Kaius appeared unscathed from the experience, but they had learned enough of his past to know that the Underdark held nothing to the nightmares he had lived through.

"Are we where we are supposed to be?" Lydia asked, having finished her gruesome scrutiny of the blood stained teeth and returning the chosen ones to their pouch on her belt. A small set of pliers were also tucked away, the strange make and flesh-warm metal revealing their Dwemer make after having assisted in cleaning the teeth of blood and gum.

Serana turned away from the sight of Lydia's bloodthirsty hobby and Kaius' response failed to reach her ears as she moved away. The time in the darkness of the cave had once again left her feeling cold and despite her vampiric nature she yearned for open spaces and light. Not for the first time she found herself surprisingly thankful that her curse didn't share the same weaknesses as those lesser vampires, especially as it allowed her to take in the beauty of the valley.

The whimsical portion of her soul marvelled at the sight even though the flint like core railed against such things. Her inner darkness threatened to crush and smother all with its taint and was a constant battle to supress the urges to despoil everything around her. Kaius had taught her ways to cope, which he was extremely thankful for as she became the first of the group to truly appreciate where they had found themselves.

None of them were sure whether they were truly within Skyrim or had crossed the borders into Highrock, but the sheer expanse of the Druadach Mountain range formed more than just a natural barrier between the two provinces. They towered into the sky as though they and they alone held it above the land and their white capped peaks peered down on Serana and the others like disappointed giants. Cutting their way through their roots, streams and rivers flowed, filled with constant snow melt during the warmer months and worming into the softer soil to form valleys. Some of these valleys were cut off from the rest of Tamriel by the impossibly sheer cliffs and ridges of the mountains, some possibly never being touched by the presence of men or mer but others such as the one they were now standing within were somewhat accessible.

Dew covered pines swayed in the breeze, which caressed its way through their needles and the grass underfoot before wrapped itself around Serana. She stood there in awe, feeling its touch and the strange purity contained within that contained no traces of humanity or civilisation. Everywhere she looked she could see nothing but the glories of nature, from the pine covered slopes, the light coverings of snow the higher she looked up the mountain ridges to the sheer cliff faces where snow-melt thundered hundreds of metres down in waterfalls. In the winter this entire valley would be covered deep in snow and ice, but now with the warming of the seasons it was gloriously beautiful.

A niggling sensation crawled behind her eyes the longer she stood and took in the sights. It was almost as though it was too serene, too beautiful to exist and besides the darkness in her soul there was something instinctual about the way that she tensed.

Clicking with her tongue, the conversation between Kaius and Lydia stopped in mid breath, and Sofia lifted herself out of where she was laying spread-eagle in the grass. All signs of joviality and amusement were gone in a heartbeat and Serana wasn't the only one who lowered a hand to a weapon in the group.

They all had learned a lot during their time within the depths of the world after Alftand, and a tiny part of her mind wondered whether they truly were the same people. Something as simple as a click of the tongue to signify possible danger was enough for them all to be instantly alert and on guard, one of many, _many_ techniques and tricks they had learned during their time in Blackreach.

"What is it?" hissed Sofia and Serana tried not to notice the way that the younger woman was clenching a fist by her side. They all had gone through quite a lot, especially Sofia during her travels with Kaius that fear was no longer a stranger to them.

"I smell smoke."

Kaius' face hardened and his brow furrowed in concentration and with a portion of his vampirism coming to the surface. "So can I. It's too damp here for it to be a natural fire."

"We're not alone." Despite her best efforts to hide it from everyone, Sofia's fist still trembled as she made her best efforts to remain her usual jovial and sarcastic self. Serana and the others knew that despite her background and lack of unnatural powers like Serana and Kaius that she was extremely tough in her own right. Unfortunately, being forced to quit a lifetime of alcohol consumption that even Nords considered to be excessive overnight had left its own brand of scars across Sofia's mind.

No further words were needed to be said as they gathered their things and moved off quietly. Worming their way through the falmer-infested depths of the world had taught them all a very valuable lesson on stealth that was now ingrained deep into their very beings. They could move for days without speaking, communicating with hand signals and a series of sounds with their mouths mimicking the foul creatures and they used these skills now, shifting away from the cave and into the pines.

Even in their armour, Kaius and Lydia were silent and Sofia and Serana in their lighter armours were almost ghosts. They each appeared to move silently in their own way, Kaius slid through the pines like a shadow, Serana seemed to glide from place to place like oil and Lydia shifted with the inevitability of the coming night. Sofia on the other hand moved with all the skill of someone forcing herself to be invisible with willpower alone, which made it even more surprising that she was actually good at it.

It took them the better part of an hour to move through the pine laden slopes, shifting around and over rocky outcrops jutting from the grass covered soil and eyeing their surroundings as they moved. The valley was far from devoid of life, and the small group ignored the curious collection of birds and wildlife that appeared curious of their presence the few times the creatures registered it. strangely spotted deer would flick their ears and watch cautiously as Kaius and the others moved past them, the fear inherent in their species utterly lacking from their inexperience of men and mer.

With every step they took however, Serana and the others could feel the tension building. Especially as the smell of smoke increased to the point where Lydia and Sofia could detect it with their mortal senses. It was faint and came and went with the breeze however it was constant and allowed them to follow it to its source.

Of the things that they had been expecting finding themselves in a long forgotten and almost inaccessible valley, a tiny cottage surrounded by neatly tilled rows of crops was certainly not it. Situated on a flat portion of the valley wall where it dropped sharply to the river below, the tiny house and farmland was situated in the perfect position to take advantage of the incredible views of the valley. The house was tiny though, barely a dozen metres long and made entirely out of stone that appeared to have been locally acquired.

What was easy to see was that the house and farm had been there for a very long time. moss covered almost every stone, including the fences denoting where the crops ended and the rest of the valley began. It was also obvious to see that not only that this was the source of the smoke they had been following, but that it was still inhabited.

For several long minutes they crouched at the edge of the forest where it thinned before the stone fence, watching and studying for any further signs of life or any signs of danger. Even for the two vampires there was no strange sensation or crawling unease up their spines and Serana found herself kneeling close to Kaius as they watched.

"Seems very quiet." Serana muttered and she saw how Kaius' jaw clenched before he nodded.

"It does." His whisper was short and sharp and using his hands he gestured to Lydia who was kneeling behind a pine tree several dozen metres away. There was no sign of her acknowledgement but the sign of movement from her position showed that she had seen his signal. "We'll take this very carefully I think."

From their crouched positions they shifted forward, eyes darting about and Serana found herself marvelling at the sights of the neat little rows of vegetables and other plants that had been planted with considerable care. Tomatoes had been planted on a collection of wooden tresses and nearby there were signs of potatoes. Some of the trees on the far side of the house were obviously apples and judging by what she could smell and hear there was a small collection of rabbits nearby, their number and concentration suggesting a type of constructed hutch.

It was all very…. _Homely_ she thought to herself as she picked her way along the rows. Kaius was less than ten metres away to her right, and Sofia was even closer to her left as they approached the building and her attentions being focussed on the crops almost made her miss the being kneeling close to the front door.

A chirp from Kaius froze them in place, not only from the fact that he seemed quite adept at mimicking a falmer when he did so but also from the warning inherent in the sound. The presence of the farm and house's inhabitant was now clear to them all, especially when it registered their presence and trespass and stood up to face them.

Sofia's gasp of astonishment reached Serana's ears and she couldn't help but feel the same. The being was tall, far taller than all of them by a considerable margin and even Kaius and Lydia would only have reached his shoulders. There was no mistaking the masculinity of such a being either, his body was heavily muscled but not overwhelmingly so like many of the nords. Except for the lack of scars and the coloration of the skin he and Kaius shared a very similar build if not for the fact that the owner of the house and farm outweighed him by at least a third of his bodyweight.

"Um… hello." Sofia said from over Serana's shoulder, and she tried not to roll her eyes even while trying to avert them from the individual. The past months may have introduced her to many realities of the world, but finding herself in close proximity a man still unnerved her almost as much as the falmer did. Sofia on the other hand reacted as she usually did when presented with a being of the opposite sex, especially one with a figure that other men would kill to have.

Feeling like a deer caught in a hunter's trap, Serana stiffened, watching as Kaius seemed to react in the same way before rising to his own full height and keeping his hands away from his weapons. "Good morning.' He said, stepping forward a few paces to let the farmer see how his hands were empty and free of weapons. "Sorry to intrude, but we didn't think that anyone lived in this valley."

The cold, ice blue irises burned first into Kaius, then into the women in turn. Lydia had appeared from around the building and had moved to Kaius' side but the tall figure remained utterly silent.

In the uncomfortable silence Serana looked over the man, seeing the pinched nature of his ears, the tall elegantly stretched nature of his build and the obvious elvish blood in his veins. What was unusual was that this was no altmer or bosmer as his skin was a pale, almost blue colour that wouldn't have appeared out of place on a corpse if not for the health and life infusing him. Similarly, his hair was also an extreme pale white, almost appearing to be as white as the snow-capped mountains surrounding them.

He was dressed in a rough spun woollen pants and a leather belt around the waist and a short sleeved tunic made from a similar material to the pants. Other than the simple pair of metal shears in one hand he was also totally unarmed, but if the sight of four heavily armed and armoured adventurers caused him any alarm there was none that could be seen.

There was also no sign that he had even heard Kaius' greeting, which left their group looking between each other with growing concern.

"Maybe he doesn't speak common?" Sofia suggested, glancing between the pale skinned elf and her companions.

"Worth a shot." Waiting a moment until the elf's gaze had returned to him. "_Salve. Viatorum, et non sit tibi ultra non cocere_."

Again there was no sign that the elf heard or even understood Kaius' words and the crystal like eyes continued to move between them.

"Oh-kay…" Kaius muttered. "Um… _Bwael kre'tan. Ussta abbilen lueth usstan phu' venrinurn lueth udos hass'l dos nau jivviim_?" he paused for a moment, watching the elf's face carefully to see if he registered his words before changing language again. "Kul sul. Dii fahdon ahrk zu'u los wunduniik…"

Gesturing openly with his hands, Kaius shrugged and looked between his companions. "Well, I don't think he understands Cyrodillic, Drow or dovahzul. Any other ideas?"

"I'll try." Said Serana, and she moved forwards a pace until the cold blue eyes came to rest on her. "_Hallå. Jag heter Serana. Vi är resenärer till området_."

The towering elf's attention focussed exclusively on Serana and the corner of his mouth cracked in the first sign of emotion he had displayed. "Ah. _Det har varit en tid sedan jag hörde nordiska, ännu längre sedan jag såg någon i köttet._"

"Well then… he speaks Nordic at least."

Lydia glanced between the elf and Sofia and snorted. "_Ancient_ Nordic you mean. I can barely understand a word out of every ten."

"_Jag är riddare Gelebor. Välkommen till Auri-El-dalen._"

"What's he saying Serana?"

She shrugged a little, listening to the elf's words as he spoke. "Well, he just introduced himself. It appears he is Knight-Paladin Gelebor and he just welcomed us to the valley of Auri-El." Stopping for a moment she felt her curiosity pluck at her mind. "_Auri-El?_"

"_Ja, Auriel, Auri-El, Alkosh... så många olika namn för falmer nas suverän._"

At the sound of one particular word, the four of them felt a spike of fear and adrenaline flow through their spines and Lydia instantly dropped her hand to her axe. "_Falmer_. He just said _Falmer!_" She hissed between gritted teeth.

"Lydia, that mightn't be a good idea." Kaius muttered, keeping his own hands away from his own weapons. "Surely you can feel that?"

Hesitating for a moment, Lydia twitched and turned her head from side to side as though straining to hear the faintest of sounds. For Serana she had been feeling the strange sensation almost within moments of stepping over the stone walls bordering the farm. It was a strange buzzing like sensation behind her eyes, a pressure with no source and revealed the presence of a powerful, yet unfamiliar magicka she had never felt the like of. She also realised what Kaius had; that the magicka was emanating from the elf.

Despite her own lack of magical skills or training, Lydia could also feel it and slowly, almost sheepishly she moved her hand away from her axe. Gelebor for his part seemed partially understanding, watching in silence as the group looked between themselves.

"He did say falmer." Serana admitted. "But not in the way that we use the word. He was describing Auri-El as the sovereign of the _snow elves_. I think this really is the place that we were looking for and that the chantry is somewhere within this valley." Slowly, her eyes travelled over the towering elf and moved over to where Kaius and Lydia were standing. "I think he is a falmer."

Sofia's snort and amused chuckle was not lost of any of them and drew all of their attentions. "A falmer? He's way, _way_ too gorgeous to be a falmer."

Despite her best efforts Serana couldn't help but feel queasy at Sofia's building lust. Even after months of travelling together and the repressed sexual tension between Sofia and Kaius she was still not used to such displays. "Like I said; I think he's an actual snow elf."

"Snow elves are extinct though. They have been for thousands of years."

Kaius nodded in agreement to Lydia's statement. "Stranger things have happened. If he's here, then there is probably a lot more of them in this valley. Serana, ask him where the others are and how long he has been here for."

Nodding, Serana turned and spoke to Gelebor in Ancient Nordic. She also listened to his reply, feeling a cold chunk of ice settle into her belly and the buzzing growing stronger in her mind.

"There isn't any others. Other than those that he describes as 'the _Betrayed'_ he has been the only one here for a long time."

"So you're telling us that he is a literal snow elf?"

"I'm saying that he is one of the _original_ snow elves…"

Kaius barely blinked at her words. "That explains the magicka."

"Seriously Kaius?"

Gesturing to the pale elf standing quietly as he watched them all carefully, Kaius made a point of staring right into Sofia's eyes. "I'm serious. Feel the magicka around him and the fact that everything around us is old. Really old. I can believe that he has been alive for a long time."

"He certainly looks like a snow elf." Serana added. "My father usually had them killed outright, but I do remember seeing a few when I was younger."

Her eyes looked over the house and surrounding crops. It was tiny, but it was also obvious that it was just large enough for a single being to tend to and live off. There was even a tiny waterwheel on the far edge of the cliff where the elf lived slowly turning from the water filled channel that had been carved from the stone. Everything in the set up was well made and efficient and easily manageable by a single person, and she could very well believe that he had been living there from before she was locked away in Dimhollow.

"I'm sorry for our trespass." Serana said to Gelebor in ancient Nordic, the language seeming strange after so many months of not speaking it. "We certainly didn't expect to find many people here, if any at all."

"It is fine." He replied simply. Where Serana's skill with the language was natural from being her native tongue, the way that the snow elf spoke belied the fact that it was not his. This coupled with the simple fact that he would not have had much use to speak it for several hundred years at least left it stilted and forced. "I am not used to visitors. Not many survive the journey to the vale."

"After what we faced in the caves I'm not surprised." Carefully, she glanced to Kaius as he intently watched how they were conversing. "When was the last time that someone was here?"

"Truthfully? I am uncertain. At least a century or two."

The buzzing was still just as intense, but it was not a painful experience, more of an annoyance than anything else and Serana tried to ignore it. "How are you still alive? It has been thousands of years since the falmer kingdoms fell."

With an expression of sorrow, Gelebor nodded slowly. "It has been. Over the centuries the others of my kin here have died but through the grace of Auri-El I will continue to live. As long as I remain faithful and tend to my duties as Knight-Paladin I will remain."

For a moment Serana could sympathise with the elf. She too was trapped in never ending life and unless slain by a foe it appeared that both of them and Kaius would continue until the end of the world. "Your duties?"

"I am the last guardian of the Great Chantry of Auri-El and until I am slain I will remain here and guard it and the vale." Carefully, ensuring that he didn't make any movements that could be threatening to Serana and the others he placed the shears down next to the plants he was pruning and brushed his hands on his shirt. "The journey here is long and difficult but you are all welcome to rest here for a time."

He led them away from the portion of his farm where he had been caring for some of his crops, moving in such a way that it gave the impression that he could have been blinded and still made his way without any effort at all. It was strange following the footsteps of the pale elf towards the edge of the cliff that allowed unobstructed views of most of the valley, and Serana found herself feeling out of sync with the rest of reality. She was undoubtedly one of the oldest beings in existence and yet here she was, following another from her own time, if not older in a place that seemed disconnected from the rest of Tamriel.

It did help her state of mind to gaze over the incredible sight of kilometres of winding river weaving its way through the roots of the mountains to an enormous lake further to the south. Everything was peaceful, serene and almost utterly untouched by the hands of men or mer. Only Gelebor's house and farm appeared to be the only construction in the entire area, if not for the strange, blocky construction dozens of kilometres away on top of one of the peaks.

"The Great Chantry of Auri-El." Gelebor explained as he noticed where Serana's gaze was fixated. "It may appear small, but it's further away than you realise."

"Just how far away is it?"

"Almost thirty kilometres. Getting to it isn't easy."

"We're used to hardship."

Gelebor studied Serana and the others briefly, giving the impression of a nod before sitting in the grass a few metres away from the cliff. "You and your friends are seeking something from the chantry."

It was obvious that his words were not a question, but a statement and as Serana sat down in the grass near him she nodded in return. Kaius sat down close by, Sofia simply plopped down and Lydia remained standing, looking over the valley and appearing disinterested in Gelebor or their conversation.

"We are. We have come a long way seeking an artefact that apparently lies within it. Auriel's bow."

The silence that fell over the group was palatable and Gelebor merely stared Serana down until she felt as though she was being stripped away, layer by layer under his gaze. "The Chantry holds many artefacts of great power but I know of the weapon you speak of. I can help you get it, but I must have your assistance."

Carefully, she translated his words to the others and Kaius leaned forward in interest. "What type of assistance do you need?"

"I need you to kill Arch-Curate Vyrthur. My Brother."

After a moment's hesitation Serana translated this and now all of their attentions were focussed of the snow elf sitting crossed legged in front of them.

"Your… brother? Why?"

Gelebor may have been smiling, but it was a sad smile. "The kinship between us is gone. I don't understand what he's become but he's no longer the brother I once knew. It was the Betrayed… they did something to him. I just don't know why Auri-El would allow this to happen."

"Just who are the Betrayed?"

He simply shrugged, his eyes shifting downwards and away from Serana's as she translated Kaius' question. "They were snow elves once, before they were corrupted and bound to slavery by the Dwemer. Now they are elves but not elves. They are twisted, hate ridden mockeries of their former selves."

There was no mistaking the shift in mood from Serana and the others as she translated. Sofia's shakes became more noticeable, Lydia's fist gripped the head of her fighting axe at her belt and Kaius leaned forward and pressed his chin into his gloved fists. "You have encountered them before…" Gelebor stated simply.

"More than once. Recently too."

"Then you will understand the threat they represent and what has happened here. It had only been a few hundred years since the Falmer kingdoms were enslaved by the dwarves, but they swept into the Chantry without warning and began killing everyone without pause. I was the leader of the Paladins, but the Chantry was a place of peaceful worship and we were no match for the Betrayed's sheer numbers. They slaughtered everyone and stormed the Inner Sanctum where I believe they corrupted Vyrthur."

Sofia, laying on her side and staring at the elf appeared torn between her attraction for him and the soul-churning unease of the Falmer. "That sounds like it happened centuries, if not millennia ago. He doesn't even know if his brother is still alive."

Gelebor shrugged when Serana translated. "He's alive. I've seen him these past years but something's wrong. He never looks as though he's in pain or under duress. He just… stands there and watches, as though waiting…"

Her fingers beating steadily against her axe, Lydia grunted and gestured along the cliff in the direction of the Chantry. "I'm interested to know how he managed to get close enough to see his brother. I can't see any paths leading there and unless he can levitate I doubt he can climb these cliffs."

"Even mountain goats would climb these cliffs tethered together." Sofia added, her humour stained by her unease.

Looking in the direction of the chantry Serana could see how a large portion of the valley had been cut in two by a rockslide of immense proportions that had cut away any walkable paths towards the chantry. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could tell that the rockslide was comparatively recent in comparison to the chantry itself, and she would have bet it wasn't an entirely natural occurrence."

"Just how did you get that close to see your brother? And have you tried getting into the Inner Sanctum yourself?"

"The ancient roads have been broken but some of the wayshrines still work. Unfortunately to leave the wayshrines unguarded would be violating my sacred duty as a Knight-Paladin of Auriel, and an assault on the Betrayed guarding the Inner Sanctum would only end with my death."

"You see… I don't like the sound of that." Digging into her pack Sofia pulled out a small collection of hardtack biscuits, stuffing one into her mouth and holding another out to Gelebor who hesitatingly took it. "This guy doesn't appear to be a slouch in combat, and is immortal to boot so I guess there's a lot of falmer up there."

"And they've had thousands of years to occupy the chantry and surrounds." Lydia's voice was as cold as the ice covered mountains surrounding them.

"We don't really have a choice though." Like Lydia's, Kaius' voice was as cold as the grave and yet there was a steely edge of determination within it. "It wouldn't be the first time we have had to sneak our way through a Falmer nest. We don't really have a choice in the matter though, the likelihood that Harkon and his vampires discovering this place is too high to not retrieve the bow. A horde of falmer is one thing, but a small army of vampires and thralls will be enough to get in and out with the bow." He thought carefully for a moment. "What does he mean by wayshrines?"

Translating the question, Gelebor nodded briefly, his face alight with pleasure as he ate the hardtack biscuit. "There used to be five of them scattered about the vale, and were an important part of the process here. They represented the steps the Initiates took on the path to total enlightenment. Sadly, the magicka used to construct these wonders were lost long before I arrived here and time and damage have taken their toll and only three remain. One is close by, the second is at the base of the Chantry steps and the third is within the Inner Sanctum itself. I have control over this one and can allow you to step through to the second, but the third has been locked closed since the day the Betrayed overran the Chantry. Only Vyrthur has the power to lock me out of the wayshrines which is another reason why I know he is still alive."

"Step through?"

Taking Sofia's offering of a second hardtack biscuit, Gelebor bit into it with obvious relish at the taste of food that differed from his usual diet. "Yes. I don't truly understand how they work but they act as magical doorways in the world. When activated they become portals that you can simply step through and find yourself on the other side."

"Marvellous." Serana muttered to herself, before translating his words to her companions.

"Teleportation." Kaius said simply, his chin still resting on his fists. "That sort of magicka hasn't been heard of or used since the end of the third era, and I have never heard of them being utilised in enchantment form before."

"What's the plan?"

He shrugged his shoulders, rubbing his face and leaning back as he looked between Serana and the others. "Unfortunately we don't have one beyond getting the bow. Ask him if his brother dies, will he be able to open the wayshrine to the inner sanctum to get us back?"

Serana did as she was asked, and Gelebor simply nodded in response.

"That gives us an option at least. Get in, kill a four-thousand-year old snow elf, get the bow and get out of there before we get overwhelmed by falmer."

"I don't like the idea of fighting falmer again Kaius." Sofia said quietly.

"Neither do I, but I don't like the idea of them and the vampires taking advantage of permanent night more. We've been through worse." His eyes met each of them in turn. "A lot worse."

Rubbing his eyes, Kaius looked over to Gelebor. "We'll rest here for the day and come first light we'll go through this wayshrine he speaks of. Tell him that he has a deal. We'll kill his brother for him."

Serana knew that she should have felt something at telling Gelebor that they were going to commit fratricide at his behest, but in the past months it was becoming difficult to feel much at all. Her fear of the unknown and her internal darkness was diminished now and while she also felt some level of terror at the falmer it was more disgust than anything else. Even then, if she was truly to describe how she felt about life it would be that it was _empty._

Alftand had hardened them, tempered them in the darkness and horrors that was the Underdark and Blackreach and they all had done things that their younger selves would have been ashamed or horrified at. They had mercy killed friends and companions, slaughtered newborn creatures to ensure their cries wouldn't attract attention and had even once partaken in actions that Namira would've been proud to witness.

She had changed, exceptionally so in the short time that she had been awake and she felt as though if her younger self met her at that moment she would not have been able to recognise herself. Too much had happened, too much had changed her and whether it was for better or worse was too early to tell.

Instead Serana found herself standing on the edge of the cliff, feeling the way the wind continued to caress her and the yawning maw promising oblivion a mere pace in front. Kaius and the others were preparing their equipment and armour for the expectation of battle but as she had done several times before, Serana took solace in solitude. The sight of the Vale of Auri-El was grand beyond belief, but it too was pale and hollow inside.

She could try to lie to herself, to say that she had changed from her time with Kaius and the others but it would be naught but ashen falsehoods on her tongue and in her mind. It could have also been from the Underdark and Alftand where she had gained understanding of her own darkness and what lengths she would go to survive, but that too was a lie. Her changes had been much more recent, more visceral than starvation and the threat of being eaten alive and had truly begun in the blasted ruins of the Soul Cairn…

* * *

As I have done throughout my stories, Ancient Cyrodillic is latin, Ancient Nordic is Swedish and the other languages are pretty straight forward. This chapter in particular was a bit of a challenge as I was not happy with the way how you find Gelebor in game. Like, it's been 4,000 years and he lives in the cave with a sleeping roll? I know he's immortal and all that but come on...

Also, one of the other minor points that I don't like is that the only way that you find out about Auriel's Bow in game is when Serana's Elder Scroll is read by the moth priest and yet Gelebor states that he has seen numerous travelers passing through seeking the bow. This didn't really sit right with me in many ways.

This was also an interesting chapter to write because I made the conscious decision to have Gelebor unfamiliar with Common and have him speak a different language. As a 4,000 year old Snow Elf it was doubtful that there would be anyone capable of speaking ancient Falmer, which left the logical conclusion that he would understand ancient Nordic. It also fits my headcanon of how in game Serana and him do a majority of the talking with the MC simply asking a question or two throughout.


	2. Zeim Dinok

Tortured and bleeding, the sky hung low over the ground like the funerary cloak of the recently dead, draping and caressing and yet never touching. Energies both foul and indescribable flickered and stretched as though yearning for the caress of true power and while on occasion they lashed out and smashed bodily into whatever dared to rise above the ground they seemingly chose to remain aloof above everything. The sky itself was a horrid mess of purplish blackness, a writhing canker on the world that it clung to like a tenacious moss but besides the crackling waves of power nothing remained visible within it.

It was this, Serana decided was the most unsettling detail about the Soul Cairn. Unlike Nirn with its night time skies filled with twinkling dots of light and the pleasant sight of the moons, or even the day with the warm radiance of the sun, the Soul Cairn was lifeless. _Soulless _a whimsical part of her considered, despite the fact that while the Soul Cairn lacked a great many things souls were certainly not in short supply.

They could be seen everywhere, rising from the ground in trailing whispers of emotion and thought, strung together with nothing more than will. Some were bright and glowing with their essences, showing the beings that they had once been while they had still lived while others were nothing more than mist, formless and shapeless as it rose and wrapped enticingly around her limbs as she moved. There were uncountable numbers of them shifting and moving, some soundlessly groaning their tortured existence into the ether while others were much more… _vocal_.

Men and mer, men and women, young and old could be seen everywhere. Some, having lost a significant portion of either their energies or their sanities found themselves reliving the moments leading up to their spirits being forever trapped within the bounds of a soul gem and ultimately, the Soul Cairn itself. Others, whether through stronger wills or more recent 'entrapments' were even capable of speech and even conversing with her as they noticed her presence but with only the slightest hesitation she had been able to ignore them and continue on.

This realm was truly the realm of the dead, and while she was thankful that she wasn't traversing it alone it certainly was playing havoc on her calm. Kaius as always was proving to be a bastion of support and indefatigable will as they pushed deeper into the Soul Cairn and it was good to have someone like him by her side. Especially given the fact that besides the nature of such a realm of existence, it was not for the unwary or unprepared.

Before her entombment within Dimhollow, Serana had studied the Soul Cairn under the tutelage of her mother but for every question there was nothing more than conjecture and guesses. The very nature of the Soul Cairn, it's history and even how it fit within the bounds of Oblivion were all unknown at the time, and even the three thousand years later since had proved that mortals hadn't learned much more than she had.

There were some, such as herself who believed that the Soul Cairn was much a part of Oblivion as what the realms of the Daedric Princes were, and that the Ideal Masters were part of such a malevolent collection of beings. Kaius had offered his theory that the Soul Cairn itself was merely the decayed and devastated remains of a world like Nirn, perhaps even the world _before_ Nirn. Standing within the crushed bones, bleached soil and shattered remains of ancient buildings it was easy to understand how he had come to such a conclusion, especially how the Soul Cairn was home to trees.

They were not real trees, not anymore at least. Like skeletal fingers punching from barrows dirt and reaching pleadingly to the hate filled sky they rose from the ground, their bark long since decayed and turned to dust. What had possibly been wood had long since turned to stone, fossilising and hardening until it began the crumble into nothingness. Even this was not the most disconcerting thing to be witnessed within the lifeless depths of the realm, that belonged to something else entirely.

Giant purple crystals hovered in the sky, hovering with malevolent intent and neither she or Kaius could do so much as glance in their direction without feeling waves of dread threaten to overwhelm them. Both of them had some passing familiarity with the Soul Cairn before they managed to enter it and they certainly knew of the Ideal Masters, but details were sorely lacking. Whether the unmoving crystals were indeed the unfathomable rulers of the Soul Cairn or conduits of their will were impossible to know, but what they did know was to approach them would result in something far worse than death.

It was unknown whether anyone within the history of Tamriel had ever truly conversed or interacted with the Ideal Masters but their trade in souls was legendary. Whether they consumed them or simple used them like tokens on a chessboard was impossible to discern, but the crystals within the infernal realm were more obvious in nature. Like reversed waterfalls of mist and light, streams of souls and their latent energies were slowly stripped and dragged from everywhere within reach. It was these crystals that consumed everything and everyone, peeling them away layer by layer until nothing but fragments remained.

As she and Kaius moved ever deeper into the realm of the soul-dealers she could feel the ethereal tug of minds beyond the scope of her understanding regarding their intrusion, as she would watch the progress of ants across a desert. The scrutiny was tiny and brief on some occasions, oppressive during others and it was difficult not to be fearful in such a place. Only Kaius' presence and the way that he steadfastly continued on as though he was strolling across a rolling plain instead of through the knee deep souls of the damned allowed her to remain calm.

"We're getting close, and this looks like to be the place."

Kaius glanced between her and the lightning wracked sky, sparing only the briefest of attention to the building awaiting them. It had taken them what felt like hours, perhaps even days to approach the enormous stone edifice but now it loomed over them like a disapproving parent, the doors remaining firmly closed in their presence.

"How certain are you?"

She shrugged slightly, feeling out the waves of magicka with her fingertips and slowly reeling in the ethereal strands of energy. They had been following the hints of magicka and life within the Soul Cairn ever since they had entered it and now it was a steady pulse instead of the merest of hints on the breezeless air.

"Very certain. Something of great power rests within here."

"At least it isn't the dragon." Neither of them were hiding their true natures in such a place, far from prying or mortal eyes and his lips were thin and stretched taut around teeth that were sharper than normal. Both of his fangs were clearly visible in the eternal twilight, and his eyes were dark and foreboding.

"No. Any sign of it?"

Carefully shaking his head, Kaius made his way up the short collection of steps to the building's entrance turning slowly around in a circle and studying the skies intently. "No, which is worrying. He's nearby though; I can feel him."

Laying eyes on a dragon was never comforting, and it was doubly so seeing one in such a place. While they hadn't managed to get a good look at the enormous winged lizard, Kaius' experiences fighting three of its kin made him exceptionally wary. Neither of them wished to force a confrontation unless they truly had to.

Meeting her gaze with his own, he gave a slow nod and rested his shoulder into the strange, metal-like stone of the doors and forced them open with a grunt. They rose above their heads like the doors to fort Dawnguard or the gatehouse of a mighty castle but they would have not appeared out of place on a family home.

"Which way now?"

Serana closed her eyes and concentrated. If she was to describe the sensation of following the trail of magicka in such a place she would have said it was like searching for a length of twine suspended in the air in total darkness. Once found though, it was remarkably simple to follow as long as you didn't lose your grip.

"This way." She gestured down the left hand passage leading away from the main entrance. There was something seemingly wrong about the sight and she blinked in annoyance.

"You see it too." The amusement in Kaius' tone was not entirely welcome. "Good, at least that means that I'm not going entirely mad."

"There's something wrong with this place."

Kaius' laugh was unpleasant and not just because of the way that his throat was becoming tighter and constricted with the vampirism rising to the surface. "Yes. We're no longer on Nirn and the laws of reality don't apply here."

He moved forward slowly, a magelight held in hand to illuminate his surroundings despite the fact that neither of them truly needed light to see. It was obvious to Serana that he wasn't taking any chances though, especially with their run ins with some of the Soul Cairn's less friendly residents.

"You seem to be holding up well." She muttered, seeing the way that he glanced out of the corner of his eye at her as they began moving down the passage.

"This isn't the first time I've found myself in such a place. It's been a while though."

"The Oblivion Crisis?"

Kaius nodded and glanced through an open doorway to their left, to what was supposed to be the exterior of the building. The room he inspected appeared over a hundred metres long and just as wide, filled with the shadowed figures of the damned despite the fact that the exterior wall should have only been two of three metres beyond the door.

"Yes. Take it from me, as nasty as this place is it has nothing on the _Deadlands_ of Mehrunes Dagon. At least we aren't breathing sulphur here."

"The… Spaces are all wrong though."

"That's to be expected. I'm just a little concerned at how long we're going to end up staying in here. Time has a habit of flowing a bit differently in Oblivion and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same in this place."

"So we could be in here for years already and not know about it?" The nod she received in response was certainly not comforting and judging by Kaius' expression he was even more concerned than she was.

The ethereal trail continued deeper into the ruined building, past numerous rooms with impossible geometries and dimensions but it didn't take long to find the source of the power. They almost walked right past it initially, until the strange surge of energies as they approached caught their attention.

"That's unusual."

Serana tried, and failed not to roll her eyes at Kaius as he approached the shimmering wall of energies across one of the numerous doorways. There wasn't a single thing about the entire realm that they were in that could be considered 'usual' but after some of the stories that he had told her of his life she supposed he could be forgiven for being nonplussed at the moment.

"What was your first clue?"

"Well…" He replied, reaching out with his fingers and pressing against the shimmering wall of energies that appeared more unyielding than stone. "This is not the same as the other magicka we have seen in this place. This is concentrated and coming from somewhere else."

Feeling out with her mind, Serana sensed the truth in Kaius' words and was again reminded how he did have some knowledge of the mystical arts. His wards were exceptional, his healing abilities were also equal to most professional healers and he could throw the odd fireball or bolt of magicka but he had a considerable grasp on magical theories. While he didn't have the temperament or the desire to become a mage he had proven that he had more experience and knowledge than most within Tamriel.

"This is the source of the magicka that we have been following." Slowly, she too felt out with a hand and felt the tingling caress of raw power through the tips of her fingers. "It's not the scroll like I had thought."

"No, but I can't sense anything beyond it."

Concentrating, Serana scrunched her face tight and forced herself to feel with more than just her physical senses. Beyond the wall of energies was a void of nothingness that she couldn't penetrate but there were several other sources of power nearby. Or at least as nearby as being inside such a structure with varying dimensions could be.

"_Of course you return._" crawled a voice from beyond the barrier, causing both of them to stiffen and Kaius to drop his hand to his sword.

Staring suspiciously into the shadows of the blocked off room, they watched as movement condensed into a figure staggering slowly towards them from the depths. The room itself was more of a collection of rooms akin to a house, if it had been abandoned for literal centuries and decayed into a crumbled ruin. It didn't take very long at all for the two of them to get a proper look at the figure and when they did they were left standing aghast and in horror.

"Mother?" Serana breathed, staring at the figure as it dragged itself along, twitching and staring with a pair of burning eyes sunk deep into the sockets of a skull pressed through the stretched skin. "by the maker…"

"Why do you torment me daughter?" hissed the wizened figure as it moved over to the barrier. "Why must you plague my dreams. The sleepless await. Light begets laughter and souls for the slaughter."

"Is it really you? I can't believe it!" Serana pushed forward on the energies, feeling it resist as much as one of the stone walls would and even with her mind there didn't seem to be any way to breach it. "How do we get inside?!"

Ignoring Serana, the figure turned and twitched its way along the barrier as though it had already forgotten about her and Kaius' presences and Serana felt sick looking at what had become of her mother. Despite everything there was no mistaking her identity, even with the horrendous changes that she had gone through.

For the past months since being freed from Dimhollow, Serana could still remember the sight of her mother as she closed the tomb and sealed her away. She had been beautiful, full of life despite her vampirism and there had been no mistaking her keen mind and a confidence born of centuries of existence. The being in front of her was still the same person but there was very little linking the two together.

Her hair was ragged and frayed, enormous clumps missing where it appeared they had been ripped from her skull, and at first glance it would have been easy to mistake her as a draugr or mummified corpse. She was literally skeletal, her skin wrapped tightly around limbs with only the barest traces of muscle and under the shattered remains of what could have been clothing were her ribs. The ancient vampiress was so emasculated that there was enough space between her ribs for Serana to fit a finger in the gap, and she was closer to a skeleton wearing skin than anything else.

"Valerica." Kaius growled, stepping forward and lightly resting his hand on Serana's shoulder as her efforts to find a way through the barrier slowly grew frantic.

At the sound of her name, the skeletal vampiress twitched and turned so suddenly that it gave both of them a start. "Go away husband, Shadows call and light beckons and there is nothing left for you here."

Sharing a concerned glance with Serana, he stepped back a single pace, rubbing at his face and appearing deep in thought as she began voicing her thoughts.

"She… She must have sought out lichdom… It… She…"

Kaius's hand remained on her shoulder and he shook his head very, very slowly and carefully and Serana struggled to remember how to breathe as she looked at the thing that had once been her mother. It was heartbreaking to see what had become of her despite the joy of discovering that she was indeed still alive, especially after all this time…

Realisation thundered into her mind and Serana tried not to gag. Three thousand years… it had been three thousand years that she had been entombed in Dimhollow and it would not have been long after that her mother had fled to this place. While Serana had slept, Valerica had been awake. Awake, and without any source of sustenance.

"Unless slain by foe or accident, a vampire never truly dies." Kaius whispered, voicing the words that Serana was trying not to think of or let the emotion attached to them overwhelm her. "I have seen vampires who have been starved of blood before, but never like… _this…_"

Valerica briefly scrabbled about in the detritus of what had been her prison for centuries and Serana could see now how it had used to be furnished. In her attempts to look everywhere but at her mother she saw the way how claw marks had been dug into nearly every surface beyond the barrier. Some were scratches, covering the walls, floors and even portions of the ceiling in a never-ending mass of crosshatching, others were extremely deep where it looked like she had tried to dig to freedom. One such hole was wide enough for a troll to fit through, but only served to reveal another portion of shimmering energies that fully entombed her within.

"I never would have believed that something like this could happen to our kind…"

"It can, and it does." Kaius replied simply. "There is a price we pay for immortality and now you have seen it with your own eyes."

On all fours, Valerica scuttled about like a deranged spider, ignoring their presence and muttering to herself. With his hand still on her shoulder, Kaius moved forwards until he was almost pressed against the glowing barrier, head tilted and trying to listen to her words.

"What can we do?"

He shrugged, and somehow that tiniest of movement instead of all the others caught her attention and Valerica stopped in place, slowly turning until the burning embers of her eyes locked on them both. Like a rabid animal she was sniffing in their direction, oblivious to the fact that nothing more than sound seemed to escape the energies entombing her within the room.

"Shadows call and light beckons. There is no blood left for you."

"Why would I want your blood?" Kaius said softly, as though speaking to a scared child or a wounded pet.

"Blood." The sudden hunger within Valerica's voice was thick and crawled across their flesh as it dribbled from her fanged maw. "Blood. Blood. Blood! Blood! _Blood! BLOOD!_"

With the speed of the insane she suddenly launched herself at Kaius with her fangs fully distended and jaw hinging wide as a snake's. Oblivious to the barrier she smashed bodily into it with full force, crushing her already misshapen featured with a crack of bone and gristle, breaking fangs and several bones in her face with the impact. The roar that wrenched itself from the starved vampire's throat was not one of pain or agony but one of a soul destroying hunger that was felt through their boots.

Both Serana and Kaius flinched away from the impact and the maddening scrabble of razored claws as Valerica tried in vain to claw her way through the unbreakable magicka trapping her with nubs of hands where her fingers had once been. In horror and in the back of her mind Serana realised that in her madness her mother had chewed her fingers off. There was no mistaking the insanity that gripped her mother or the way that she had broken most of her face in her failed attempt to attack them, but what was more disturbing was the way that not a single drop of blood could be seen. Her veins were empty and collapsed but this didn't stop the ancient vampiress from attempting to lick the non-existent blood from her lips.

"As vampires we don't really need to eat food or drink water, although it helps." Remaining by Serana's side, Kaius was sombre at the sight. "What we can't do without is blood. It differs between individuals how long they can fend off the cravings. Some can last a few days, others a week or more but eventually we have to feed. The longest I have ever lasted without blood is about three weeks, and I have never seen a vampire survive for longer than a month without losing themselves to the thirst."

Slowly, a though wormed its way into Serana's mind as she gazed on the being that had once been her mother. "This is what you feared at Alftand wasn't it? Not death, or being captured by the falmer but starving…"

He nodded. A short quick motion in her direction before he returned to stillness once again. "Yes. I was less concerned for myself, but I was uncertain how strong you would be in such a situation. Your vampirism is powerful Serana. Extremely powerful and your thirst would be as equally so."

"What about your thirst?"

His eyes were cold and hard, the darkness visible within them. "I know my limits, which is why I was _extremely_ concerned during our time in the Underdark."

A crack of bone caught their attention but this time it was not as a result of Valerica throwing herself at them. Her erratic movements had begun slowing, her attempts to drink up the non-existent blood suddenly ceasing as though they had never occurred. Instead she was twitching, her limbs and body twisting and growing as her own vampire came to the surface in response to the pain and damage her body had just sustained.

In a broken parody of her daughter's vampire form, Valerica twisted and changed. Her skin turned waxy and seemed to melt and flow over her elongating bones, her nose squashing flat to her face and nostrils lengthening as though being carved with a knife while her eyes retreated further into her skull. Ears twisted and became pointed, her jaw was wrenching and snapping as it too changed to accommodate the growth of her fangs from the already impressive specimens occupying her maw.

More disgustingly, her shoulder blades ripped free from the paper thin flesh containing them, growing and twisting into spidery forms before peeling open like grotesque flowers into leathery wings. The transformation took very little time at all to occur and Valerica the woman was gone, replaced with Valerica the vampire lord.

"By the maker, what has become of you?" Serana whispered, feeling her own strength weakening as she leaned against the magical barrier for support. "There must be a way that we can free her."

Kaius' response was cut short from the sickening chuckle from the starved vampire on the other side of the barrier and both he and Serana felt a chill as Valerica turned her twisted visage up to face them. "_Free? No free._"

"No free?" He said, and Serana could sense the words that he had intended on saying before her mother spoke.

"_No free._' Valerica growled again. "_Safe. Hidden. Lost. Harkon can't find what he can't seek. The Blood of Coldharbour's Daughter will blind the eye of the Dragon. No blood. No Scroll. Only Victory._"

His hand came to rest on Serana's shoulder once more as she slid to her knees in emulation of her mother who was kneeling and wrapped in her own wings like a woollen cloak. "You locked yourself in here on purpose… Didn't you?"

The laugh that Valerica emitted was soul-wrenching and was mixed between the death rattle of a being suffering pneumonia and the chirps of a bat. "_Safe. Hidden. Lost. Protected. Guarded. Prophecy means darkness. Darkness is Death. Death means starvation. Starvation means… Me._"

"The Tyranny of the Sun…" Serana whispered.

"A world without light is a world that would die." Kaius replied, his voice as cold as the grave. "Sure, the vampires would have free reign and mortals would be enslaved but without light there is no life. Crops would fail, animals would die and then so would most of the mortal races from the ensuring famine."

"Leaving every vampire to starve…"

Kaius nodded. "If every vampire wasn't successfully hunted down by every mortal being on the planet in the attempts to return the sun, those who would be left would be doomed to become like your mother. It might take years… a decade or two at the most, but by the end all that would be left would be a handful of vampires like… this…"

There was no way that Serana couldn't notice how he gestured to her mother, who was now biting and snapping her jaws at her hands as though she was trying to consume fingers that hadn't been attached to her body in centuries, if not longer.

"Where is the Elder Scroll?" She asked softly, and for a moment she thought that her mother's mind was far too gone to hear or understand her but Valerica stopped in mid bite, twisting her head and looking at her daughter.

"_Far from Harkon. Claimed by a being greater than he._"

"The Dragon."

Valerica didn't appear to hear Kaius but confirmed his statement nonetheless. "_Durnehviir. Captor. Jailor. Guardian. Prisoner. Harkon will never have the scroll while the dragon lives, and the dragon cannot die._"

Breaking down into another bout of mindless laughter intermingled with the wet snapping of her attempts to bite off fingers that no longer existed, Valerica returned to her distracted state. Kaius was left rubbing at his jaw, gazing upon the insane, blood-starved vampiress while Serana knelt on the floor, feeling shocked to the core.

Slowly her shock was becoming drained away by another emotion that began in the depths of her belly. It was a kindled ember, as heavy as lead, as hot as dragonfire and it was growing as she stared at the creature her mother had become. The feeling was growing and with it was realisation. Realisation of what he mother truly represented and the reasons behind everything.

"The Blood of Coldharbour's Daughter will blind the eye of the Dragon." She whispered, almost too softly to hear.

"What?"

"That's the prophecy. That's how it works. The Tyranny of the Sun. We need Auriel's bow, but it alone won't block out the sun. It needs blood. Blood from a daughter of Coldharbour."

Kaius' face was grim but the way his jaw clenched was more than enough for Serana to know that he understood. She knew all too well herself that she knew exactly what it and everything that had happened to her truly meant.

"That's why you did it, isn't it?" she growled, feeling the burning begin to spread from the depths of her stomach and begin to eat into her veins.

"What?"

Ignoring Kaius' question and his sudden confusion Serana stared at the emasculating thing that had been her mother with such intensity she was partially surprised she didn't spontaneously combust. "To protect me you decided to shut me away from everything I cared about? You never asked me if hiding me in that tomb was the best course of action, you just expected me to follow you blindly. Both you and father were always so obsessed with your own paths. Your motivations might have been difference, but in the end… I was still just a pawn to you."

Clenching her fists tight, Serana failed to notice the way that her gloves split and ripped as her claws began to lengthen, and the burning sensation was so great that she was oblivious to the twisting of her flesh as it response to her emotions.

"But that's just it isn't it? I have never been anything but a pawn… a… _tool_ to be used for your and father to gain more power. Oh I tried to ignore the truth even when I was put in front of me, that my whole existence is nothing more than a stepping block for you both to gain immortality."

Clothes ripped as the power within her veins thundered until there was almost nothing that could be heard but the roaring of her blood. a tiny portion of her mind felt the way that her tunic and leather armour was pulled apart by the growth of her wings, that her sleeves were suddenly filled with muscle as her arms lengthened and expanded with the power of the vampire. Such was the fury and rage and sorrow that didn't realise that she had stabbed her own lips with her fangs, even when the taste of polluted copper made itself known on her tongue.

"You never loved me! Never! I knew even before it happened that I was nothing more than a sacrifice! You kept me locked up in the castle not for my safety but to ensure that I remained '_pure_'. Tell me mother, did you even feel anything that night when you had me chained down? Did anything enter that tainted mind of yours that you had willingly assisted your husband in raping your daughter? What about when the summoning was complete and you gave me to a Daedra? I don't know what you were thinking or feeling that night when father gave all of us to Molag Bal, but I certainly know how you all felt afterwards. You were _surprised_. Surprised at how after everything and everyone had taken their turns with me and left me for dead that I had survived! I bet that ruined your perfectly laid plans in ruins now didn't it? _DIDN'T IT_!"

The punch into the magical barrier was so powerful that it sent shockwaves through the floor and the tiles under her feet cracked but it paled in comparison to her own roar of hatred and anger. The sound was so raw, so animalistic that there was nothing human left within it and on the other side of the barrier, the creature that shared her blood cowered under the display.

"You used to call me naïve. I know I was, and I know that I still am but I understand you now. I understand _what_ I am." Her knife-thin lips peeled back from her fangs in an expression that was part challenge, part hatred and part smile. "I'm not you, and I'm not your daughter."

Turning on her heel to leave, she found herself face to face with Kaius who had remained entirely still through her outburst, but like her had also changed. No longer was he the first person she had seen when she had awoken in Dimhollow or the man who she had travelled with for the past months, but was now Kaius the Vampire. His 'true' form was fully surfaced, a mass of bony growths and ridges and razored claws as black as his soulless eyes. In the form of the vampire lord, Serana was now slightly taller and had to look down slightly to meet his gaze but he was a brute of power and malice compared to her agile and dexterous body.

The one thing that they shared at that moment was the complete and utter lack of fear to each other. He was able to stand toe to toe with her without hesitation or any cowering and her anger and power was strong enough that she could face down a being that had drunk from the veins of a dragon as an equal. It was this and the utter lack of concern from Kaius that allowed the woman in her mind to regain control, and with some trepidation she relaxed and transformed back into human once more.

Both of them stood silent, Kaius standing as stoically as ever but his eyes betrayed the concern he had for her. As she returned to human he had done the same until there was nothing showing of the vampire beyond the slight deformation of his lips where his fangs pressed. There were no words shared, and after a moment of obvious hesitation he had simply reached out, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving it a momentary squeeze.

Without thinking and surprising herself more than him, Serana had choked up and put her arms around him before either of them realised what she was doing. It was only for a brief moment before she pulled sheepishly away but a tiny crease of a smile was reflected on both of their faces.

"I would say something but I don't think words are worth anything at the moment." Kaius admitted, trying his best to give her a confident smile as she felt that last remnants of the burning fade from her body. "I'm guessing that she definitely doesn't have the scroll?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Well then." There was another comforting squeeze of a shoulder before his hand dropped down to the hilt of his sword. Carefully, as was his habit he drew it out of the scabbard slightly, testing the edge with his thumb before returning the blade to where it belonged. "Time to kill another dragon."

Together they moved away from the magical barrier imprisoning Valerica, leaving the immortal vampire in the darkness with her cackling dwindling away with every step.

* * *

Well, I decided to correct a few obvious flaws in the lore and gameplay, mostly involving Valerica and her vampirism. I could've gone with the whole "Pure vampires don't have a need for blood/time flows really slowly in the Soul Cairn" but I decided to give her a "Bloodtide Rising" style makeover.

Even in the 'canon' where Serana and her family were born and cursed in the 2nd Era, that's still hundreds of years where Valerica was trapped in the Soul Cairn. I also find the whole dialogue and details scattered throughout the Dawnguard quests/lore to be really haphazard where Durnehviir entered the Soul Cairn shortly after the Dragon Wars, and yet only after Valerica entered it sometime in the mid to late 2nd Era, wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff, blah blah blah...

In short, a massively starved vampire was a lot cooler to write and did less damage to my brain figuring out all the lore haha.

Throughout all of my writing, the one thing I have the most fun with other than coming up with interesting lore and world building is incorporating the in-game(s) dialogue into the scenes I create. A lot of the time I try to keep it word for word and would love to know what people think of how it turns out.


	3. Lord of Vampires

There was a momentary sensation of disembodiment, the feeling of falling as her boot dropped an additional centimetre to the ground and just like that Serana found herself at the base of an enormous building rising into the heavens. In the space of two steps she had travelled dozens of kilometres, feeling the way that the air had changed temperature, that her breath was steaming and her chest now felt noticeably tighter from the altitude. In the back of her mind she could hear Sofia's half joking remarks about how the teleportation spells within the wayshrine wouldn't transport them as much as make a copy at one end and destroy the original.

Kaius had quickly put that joke to rest, especially with Lydia's obvious distaste at utilising the ancient Falmer wayshrine. He had simply stated that souls could not be copied and that such an event was impossible, but for that tiny moment that was all that occupied her mind.

"That was… Unpleasant." She muttered, shivering for a moment as she accustomed herself to the strange tingling that was slowly dying out of her limbs.

"It was different. That's for sure." Kaius replied, turning around and watching as their other companions stepped through the shimmering mirror-like surface of the wayshrine. Trying her best to hide her distaste for magicka, Lydia stepped through with a scowl on her face and immediately appeared as though she had just sucked on a lemon from the sensations. Sofia was close behind, her own trepidation suddenly replaced with a bout of swearing as the vertigo took control and forced her onto a knee.

"Woo… that's not a good feeling."

"Everyone still got all their fingers and toes?"

There were affirmations from Lydia and Sofia but Serana's attentions had already been drawn to the area. The darkness within her was screaming a warning to her conscious mind and it wasn't hard to see why. As a multitude of fluted arches and carved marble, the Chantry was a colossal construction that represented decades of efforts to build at such a location. It was majestic, glorious and reminded Serana all too much of the portions of Castle Volkihar that had remained from the time it had originally been taken by her ancestors from the Falmer.

But it was obviously corrupted… _infested_ by the descendants of the original creators who had clustered over and around the Chantry like parasites.

There were dozens of their foul dwellings built onto and around the Chantry and the rocky mountain that it was built upon, appearing as twisted yurt-like tents made from chaurus chitin supports and the tanned hides of their own kind. Bones and sinew were weaved together to fashion twisted totems planted into the ground and hanging from wherever possible to create a shivering sea of death and cannibalism and what was truly worse was the sheer numbers of the foul creatures scraping their horrid existence around the chantry.

"By Talos… Just how many are there?" breathed Lydia as she and the others saw what had caught Serana's attention and whatever sensations had been brought upon by the wayshrine were lost in the flood of fear and horror at what they faced.

"Too many." Kaius said simply, his determination and resolve being replaced by a disturbing level of unease that the women had never seen him show before. "Quick, back through the portal."

Even as the words left his mouth the shimmering wall of energy in the back of the circular wayshrine flickered and died, returning to the sigil marked marble it had been before Gelebor had activated it.

Everyone's sudden feelings of dread were summed up neatly by Sofia, who glanced up and down at the wayshrine and said a single, solitary _Shit_ in response.

The wayshrine was built on the Chantry side of an enormous bridge, carved from the bones of the mountains across a crevice and joining the place of worship with the Forgotten Vale. It was high in the mountains, providing clear views all the way back to Gelebor's lonely house but there was no refuge or passage to safety in that direction. The chantry itself may have been home to several dozen families of Falmer, but the crevice and the long winding road from the bridge down into the valley was a different matter entirely.

Hundreds of their chitin and flesh huts were clustered around the slopes like barnacles on a mudcrab's carcass, ignoring the slopes and cliff faces where they had managed to carve a foothold into the crevice itself in a foul amalgamation of a spider's web and exploded corpse. From her position near the wayshrine Serana could see all the foul facets of the Falmer society, from the breeding lairs with their dozens of squalling infants and broodmothers, to the flesh pens filled with dozens of their own kind and their chaurus stock. What was also obvious was that this particular nest was too large to be called as such. Even the Falmer of Alftand and Raldbthar, while numerous had not been as great of a horde as what they had just found themselves quite literally in the centre of.

Even worse than the overwhelming number of the creatures was the fact that their arrival had not gone unnoticed by the creatures. While lesser in number than the masses on the other side of the bridge, the Falmer occupying the Chantry and its curved staircases had sensed the burst of magicka and the wind was blowing their scent towards the blind creatures.

"We have to move." Almost like it was a conjurers trick, Kaius' sword had appeared in his hand without thought or effort. "Move quickly and as quietly as you can and hopefully we don't attract any more attention."

"They know we're here Kaius." Serana replied, hearing the curious chirping from the nearest flesh-huts as they caught the scent on the breeze.

"Not all of them know yet."

"Am I seeing things or is that someone up there?"

Following Sofia's outstretched arm, they twisted and gazed up to the top of the stairs leading from the base of the statue up to the looming doors of the Chantry. Serana could easily see the figure standing at their threshold, lurking in the shadows just beyond the partially closed doors. He was not one of the foul creatures that were slowly emerging from their huts in their curiosity, but instead was tall and straight, gazing down upon them without any sign of emotion. Even though the distance was considerable, Serana's vampiric sight allowed her to see the pale skin and white hair of the being, seeing the now-familiar appearance of a snow-elf before their corruption.

"Vyrthur." She said, and saw the way that Kaius gritted his teeth and nodded as the cries of the Falmer began increasing in volume.

Slowly, the figure stepped back and pushed the doors closed, shutting himself inside the chantry and Serana and the others outside with the other Falmer.

"Stick together but don't stop moving. We're going to go up the right stairs and get inside as quickly as we can."

"Don't let them take me alive." Sofia said, her habitual humour almost entirely gone and a cold sliver of ice infusing her words. "I'm too pretty to be eaten."

Although he didn't respond, Serana knew that not only was Sofia's words not a joke but also represented a promise that they all had made to each other in the darkness of Blackreach. Against the likes of the Falmer, it was better to be killed by a friend than to be alive if they caught you.

Without a word they began to move, slowly at first but as they drew closer to the falmer dwellings and the noise of their occupants grew they picked up the pace. The curious chirps and warbling calls quickly changed to alarm as the four of them reached the base of the steps and the first of the foul huts, especially when one of the many Falmer stepped out into the accursed sunlight and realised what the group was. It died in a moment, it's cry of warning cut away in mid breath as Sofia stabbed it in the throat. It's rattling voice only served to confirm their presence to the others within the hut, who's voices soon joined the growing din until the mountains vibrated with the noise of the horde.

While less populated than the crevice, there was still several dozen falmer within the huts along the steps and with the warning cries of their kind growing they began appearing like ants from a kicked nest. In ones or twos, they scuttled out and were either cut down or quickly retreated from the group moving up the staircase.

This was the most dangerous thing about the falmer, and Serana and the others knew it intimately. When confronted with a threat or potential prey the falmer were cautious and timid, running away and seeking more of their wretched kind for protection. If they were outnumbered or noticeably weaker than the threat they would run away and gather others, if they were roughly equal in strength they would stalk and hunt, using ambushes and an animal cunning to harass and weaken. But when their numbers were greater the blind creatures would be overwhelmed with their all-consuming hunger and there would be nothing in Oblivion or Mundus that could hold them back. They would swarm over everything in their path, ignoring injuries and only stopping to fall upon the dead and dying in a cannibalistic frenzy.

For the moment Serana and the others had the advantage where the falmer didn't know how many they were and they hurdled the stairs as quickly as they could, killing a handful on their way that left the steps slick with blood and gore. Some of the fallen creatures didn't have a chance to succumb to their injuries before their families fell upon their squirming forms, digging their peg-like teeth into their flesh in an orgy of feeding.

There was still a lot of them and every one that was cut down was replaced with another two or three as they began building up the courage or hunger to face the travellers down. just as quickly Kaius and the others were being forced to resort to their other strengths and abilities to continue their way up the stairs.

Serana felt the shudder of metal on bone up her arm as she cut deep into the side of a shrieking falmer, its face contorted into agony and hatred as it felt its body go limp from a severed spine. The move was clumsy and if Kaius had seen it he would've admonished her for it at a later date if they survived but she didn't care. The creature had come out of a hut wielding a club made from a femur and she had hacked at it without thought, her vampiric strength almost cutting the creature in two. For a brief moment she had to twist the blade and kick the dying falmer to free her weapon but that moment almost cost her as another three leapt at the opportunity.

In her own display of gracefulness, Sofia lunged forward with her own sword, spearing one through the open mouth and out the back of its skull and throwing a bolt of magicka into the chest of the second before it could dig its grubby claws into Serana. The vampiress moved without hesitation, dragging the last few centimetres out of flesh and grabbing the third in mid leap with her spare hand.

For a moment it scratched and clawed at her arm as she held it aloft by the throat and as Sofia stabbed her other opponent to death Serana was left feeling the building shadow growing within her mind. As it always had, the Vampire Lord was growing more powerful as the danger increased and she could already feel the shifting changes as her body made the preparations for the change. The growing strength was so potent that she barely had to think about the action, simply closing her fist around the struggling falmer's windpipe so suddenly that she nearly decapitated it in the process.

"Keep moving! Don't slow down!" Kaius roared, pausing only for a heartbeat before throwing himself into a graceful ballet of slices and hacking motions that left his sword a blur and a half dozen falmer strewn across the steps. More than one of them were younglings, barely up to his waist but the growing hunger and blood lust of the creatures knew no age and if they were able to crawl, they would attack them without fear.

"Lydia! Lydia, get back here!"

Heedless to Sofia's call, the Nordic housecarl was lost in the midst of her own battle, one of her own choosing that had left her surrounded and partially out of reach of her comrades. Out of one of the huts closest to the Chantry's entrance had emerged a falmer dressed in thick chaurus chitin armour, wielding a serrated claw from a chaurus reaper in both hands. This falmer was larger and stronger than the others of its kind, rising to the top of their society through strength and viciousness to claim the title of alpha male. The foul aura of dread and horror it extruded was like vermin across flesh and normal beings would have balked at its sight, but to Lydia it appeared nothing more than an additional trophy to add to her collection.

Parrying a blow that would have cut through steel plate with her shield, Lydia shifted and moved from the creature's wild blows. While strong in comparison to the rest of its kind, it was only just stronger than an average human and was not as strong as one of Whiterun's greatest housecarls. Its blows were deflected or absorbed by her shield, the others assisting it hacked down one by one by the crescent of Lydia's fighting axe while Serana, Sofia and Kaius fought to reach her before the horde grew too great to fight through.

Swinging her axe, Lydia managed to hook one of its hands under the curved head and the haft, twisting and snapping the limb with a flick of her wrist before it realised what was happening. Even with its pain the falmer _Valdruk_ continued to fight, the smell of blood and flesh overwhelming its senses and replacing all of its instincts with that to feed. These animalistic instincts served it no purpose as Lydia stepped in closer, relying on her shield's straps to keep it attached to her arm as she grabbed the falmer by the chitinous breastplate and slammed her armoured forehead into its nose. The crunch of bone and cartilage was loud enough to hear over the growing sounds of battle and it was all too easy to see how the creature suddenly went limp in her grasp.

Within seconds of the falmer champion dying, the other creatures changed from overwhelming hunger to fear and as quickly as they had been attacking they had stopped and began scrabbling away. Only those not quick enough to escape further magical attacks from Sofia and Serana failed to escape, disappearing around and behind the huts, but not retreating far at all.

"Are you fucking happy now?" Sofia snapped at Lydia as they took advantage of the momentary lull in falmer attacks to reach her.

Ignoring her and the others for the moment, Lydia dropped the falmer alpha and stomped hard on its face with another sickening crack of bone. She had no words for any of them, not even bothering to reply to Sofia's comment as she simply leant down, picked up a couple of the broken teeth that she had stomped out and secreted them into the pouch with her other collectables.

"This place is not going to be able to hold them off." Kaius was moving like a hunting wolf, stalking his way up the stairs but taking care to almost walk backwards as the twisted features of the Falmer began to cautiously appear around the sides of every piece of cover in sight. For the moment they were in shock, but that was something that wasn't going to last long.

Their position towards the top of the stairs afforded them even greater views of the chantry grounds and the bridge leading into the Vale and the sight was not a pleasant one. "The rest of them are coming." Serana's voice was cold and the darkness in her flesh was almost at the surface now, bubbling and promising great power at the sight of the horde coming for them.

In the tunnels of Alftand and the caverns of Blackreach they had encountered swarms of Falmer that had cost the lives of a handful of the expeditions survivors. In the darkness and enclosed environments of the underground it was difficult to see the true numbers of the creatures when they had alerted nests but in the sunlight the true scope of the threat was all too easy to see. The nest that had built itself into the mountains was truly enormous and now it was alerted to their presence with the sounds and smells of death and blood. Alone the sounds would have been enough to illicit a response from the nest, but the promise of flesh was enough to drag a large majority of the falmer into the sunlight in a horde that was growing larger, and closer with every second.

"Even Dwemer doors wouldn't hold that back." Lydia said, rolling her shoulders and ensuring that her shield was secure once more. "We're not getting out of this my Thane."

"Get those doors open." He said simply, his eyes focussed on the leading members of the swarm that was now pouring up the slope and getting close to the other side of the bridge.

"We can't fight that." No matter how much she tried to ignore it, Serana could feel the shifting of bones in her face as the vampire came to the surface. "Even if we get inside, there is too many to fight."

She knew that none of them had any illusions for their chances. The nest itself must've contained the better part of the population of Whiterun within it and there were literally hundreds of Falmer now swarming up the slopes and even scaling the cliffs in their lust for flesh. No signs of power or intimidation was going to be enough to stop this mass of corrupted beings, and even with their vampirism, martial prowess and skill with magicka and other powers they couldn't hope to defeat them.

Kaius definitely knew this and for several long moments that stretched into eternity, Serana watched as some internal conflict ravaged the other vampire. His flesh, like hers was shifting and changing, the creature within him rising to the surface but it was not against this that he was struggling.

Lifting his head from the sight of the horde, Kaius puffed his chest, blew out a massive breath that puffed his cheeks and growled. Then, breathing in deeply they felt a surge of energies ripple from his flesh as he called upon his other abilities.

"**_Hon dii Zul ahrk bol nol fin Qoth do Sil! Zu'u bel hi DURNEHVIIR!_**"

The power of the Thu'um was unlike any magicka and even with her experience over the past months it was still painfully humbling to bear witness to what he could accomplish with the voice. She had seen his abilities grow in the past months, witnessed how strong his _Unrelenting Force_ was when it cracked granite, how his dragonfire could melt anything except Dwemer metal and how he could infuse his sword and body with speeds that not even she could match. This was not the same kind of shout, and unlike Sofia and Lydia she instinctively knew its intent was.

At first there was no sign that the shout had done anything beyond shaking snow and ice from the roof of the chantry and a minor avalanche a few kilometres away on a neighbouring peak. It did give pause to the horde for a moment as they came to a brief stop, milling around with their chirps and squeals of confusion drowning out the echoes of the Thu'um, but soon a new sound began to grow.

Like ripping meat, reality puckered and shifted a short distance down the stairs from Kaius. The vague _wrongness_ of that spot of air drew the eye and Serana could feel the way that something was pressing against the barriers between worlds. Buzzing and vibrating within her mind and within her bones the waves of raw energy from that space made Serana feel nauseous but was only heralding what was to come.

"What in oblivion's name did you do Kaius?" Sofia shouted as the buzzing changed into an audible growl of energy.

"I called for help."

The wound in reality lengthened and yet didn't change, shifting through all the colours in the spectrum and yet consisted of impossible colours of raw magicka. Rippling with change and trailing streams of shimmering light like embryonic fluids a giant head broke through the barriers, following by a long serpentine neck and a scaled body larger than a battering ram.

"**_Ah, fin stin se do Vus ahst lingrah laat_****!**"

Only Kaius and Serana stood their ground as the gigantic wyrm shook itself free of the last vestiges of the Soul Cairn and fully entered the physical realm. For Sofia and Lydia, this was not only the first time that they had laid eyes on this particular dragon, but also the first time they had encountered one that wasn't immediately hostile.

"_Durnehviir, mu laan hin aak!_"

Despite the lack of aggression from the giant reptile, Serana and the others were forced back from the sheer overwhelming smell. Unlike the other dragons they had faced, this dragon was horribly unique. Scaled flesh hung from its sides like the tattered remains of a cloak and here and there the whiteness of bone was visible from where skin and muscle had rotted away. Great rips were visible in places on its wings, the ancient wounds fluttering in the breeze of the mountains and its face; a mess of ancient scars and mottled bone dripped with blood stained saliva and pus as it shifted and gazed upon the man who had summoned it.

Despite everything it appeared that the giant, decayed dragon was amused, tilting its head in a semblance of a bow to Kaius who refused to budge an inch.

"**_Dii Aak?_**" It rumbled, an almost subsonic tone that was almost felt more than heard. "**_Do Qahnaarin. Hin vaat los dreh, ol fen kos dii._**"

Below them, the horde was moving again, the sight of an undead dragon doing nothing for a species rendered entirely blind and other than the sounds of the creature moving the hundreds of falmer had little idea of what they were now facing. Serana repressed the growling of her vampirism at the memories for fighting this exact being within the Soul Cairn and also tried not to sigh with relief as the dragon twisted and began to climb down the stairs towards the onrushing horde.

"Serana, keep any of the stragglers off our backs. Lydia, Sofia, help me with these damned doors."

"So you can summon zombie dragons now?" Sofia asked Kaius as he moved past, receiving little more than a shrug in reply.

"Only when he wants to be summoned." He had to shout his reply as the three of them put their shoulders into the doors and began to strain to get them open. Durnehviir was moving quickly, almost too quickly for a creature that looked and smelled as though it had been dead for several months and was too large to move down the stairs with the Falmer huts built onto and next to it. The falmer that had been hiding nearby were scattered with the same ease of the huts as Durnehviir simply waded through them, snapping and breaking flesh and hut alike under his talons and with his tail as he moved.

"**_Morokei grah!_**" he roared, subjecting the Falmer to the full power of his voice as he slithered down and around the statue near the wayshrine and bridge. "**_Haalvut dii Zul!_**"

The horde was halfway across the bridge as he reached the other end, and as Serana watched she could feel her stomach drop with expectation as the dragon lifted himself up to his full height, spread its tattered wings as though planning to physically block the falmer and _Shouted_.

Although a mass of pallid, greasy flesh, the falmer were not a packed swarm as they crossed. The first to experience the power of Durnehviir's _Thu'um_ were the fastest or the most crazed with hunger, leading the pack almost like hunting dogs. Some were mounted on the backs of larger breeds of chaurus like insectoid steeds, and while the rest of the horde was close behind, they were getting crammed on the other end of the bridge which was slowing, and compressing their numbers.

Durnehviir's first shout of _Tiid du slen_ swept across the swarm's vanguard like a pulse of energy and the falmer and their mounts simply died in mid step. Not only did they die but their bodies withered and decayed in an instant, exploding into dust as they fell. This didn't even slow the rest of their corrupted kin who pushed on regardless and who managed to trample their way through ashen remains before Durnehviir continued his attack.

Serana could do nothing but shiver at the sight and sound of a dragon battling such a foe. She and Kaius had fought him as equals but it was obvious that his true strength was not in one-on-one battles or duels but against armies. He stripped the life from dozens of falmer with every syllable of his _Thu'um_, ripping their souls out of their flesh and even calling upon ethereal shades of the dead and soulless from the depths of the realm that he was eternally trapped within. Whatever support he was going to provide was going to be short lived, and she knew as well as Kaius that sooner or later Durnehviir would have to return to the Soul Cairn but for the moment at least he would buy them time.

With _Diil qoth Zaam_ echoing in her ears, she saw how the falmer that they had fought through to reach the doors were turning and charging towards the dragon in their midst even as more threats appeared. Fuelled by the soul-draining powers of the necromantic dragon, the _Thu'um_ summoned all-too-familiar shades of the damned from the depths of the Soul Cairn, dragging them shrieking into reality to aid in the battle. These tortured spectres fell upon the falmer with a hunger for souls that matched the blind creatures hunger for flesh, ripping with ethereal claws through skulls and chests, gnawing and rending away at the Falmer even as the corrupted snow elves fought back just as viciously.

"He's bought us some time, but we don't have long." Kaius growled as they managed to force the doors open and hurriedly push inside. "We need to find Vyrthur and get out of here."

"And find the bow." Sofia added with a hint of her old humour lingering in her voice.

"Obviously."

The interior of the Chantry was cold and ice covered almost all available surface almost in protest to the climate outside but Kaius and the others' attentions were elsewhere. Outside the battle between the falmer and Durnehviir was growing louder and louder and despite his power it was obvious that they were all concerned that he mightn't be able to contend with the sheer numbers.

Everywhere they looked in the Chantry, they could see nothing more than ice and statues frozen entombed within. Some were statues of marble and precious metals, others were of flesh and bone and Serana and the others felt uneasy at the sight of so many of them throughout the interior.

"This is a trap." Sofia said, appearing shocked that she had spoken aloud and how her words echoed over the sounds of the epic battle outside.

"Undoubtedly so." Kaius moved forward slowly, sword in hand and a magelight in the other that he flung towards the far wall. "The question is what kind of trap."

"Can't be anything worse than what's outside."

"This is true." More magelights were flung about, turning the wide entrance of the Chantry into a bas-relief of flickering shadows and gleaming ice from the magical balls of light. "He's nearby though."

Gesturing for them to follow, Kaius began to move with the others close behind, feeling increasingly unnerved from the frozen expressions from the dozens of humanoids in their icy prisons. Many were falmer and chaurus but there were others scattered about from various other races of men and mer, forever stuck in the position in which they had died.

Somewhat surprisingly, they didn't have to move far through the sculptures of ice and flesh to lay eyes on the only living thing within the Chantry. Like Kaius, Serana could sense his presence before they managed to lay eyes upon him, tasting his scent on the still, frozen air as easily as she could have reached out and touched the frozen falmer and their insectoid pets that she walked past.

If there was any doubt that Vyrthur was Gelebor's brother, the simple act of seeing him in close proximity was enough to remove it entirely. He had the same build and appearance and a similar facial structure that easily revealed their links by blood. However, where Gelebor was calm and welcoming, Vyrthur radiated a sense of malice and annoyance by their presence, as though the mere act of their proximity was enough to offend his senses.

Serana hesitated for a moment as they moved towards the throne upon which he sat, the broken shards of the statue of Auri-El that had once occupied it scattered at his feet. Even a detail so tiny was enough to drag a warning hiss from the vampire within her, especially coupled by the evidence of what had happened to the handful of other adventurers who had reached the inner sanctum and the Snow Elf's lack of concern towards them.

or the other languages that the group knew, Serana felt her jaw tense and she stepped towards him. "Vyrthur." She said in ancient Nordic, her birth language rolling off her tongue easily as she made the safe assumption that he wouldn't be able to speak common like his brother. "We have come for the Bow of Auriel."

The sense of annoyance emanating from the ancient being seated on the throne was suddenly gone, and even more concerning was the fact that curiosity and interest replaced it just as quickly.

"The Bow…" His voice was a sibilant hiss despite the way that he was forced to remember and speak a language that he hadn't needed in an unfathomable age. "You come seeking the Bow? Interesting…"

Serana tried and almost succeeded in remaining still as his attentions moved and specifically focussed on her. There was a brief moment where he studied Kaius and provided a moment for the other two women and it was as though that he was searching for something in particular. Something, that judging by the way that his mannerisms changed to triumph that he found in her.

"Ah. Just as I predicted. It may have been a few centuries longer than I expected but you have finally come. Good."

"What's he saying Serana?" Sofia asked from her side, and Serana could feel the Snow Elf's attentions grow stronger as he rose to his impressive height with a smile growing larger like that of a starved slaughterfish.

"He expected me, or someone like me to come."

"That's not good."

The pulsating waves of magicka that suddenly hit them from the tall elf stuck them in the mind and stomachs simultaneously, threatening to overwhelm them all with the exception of Lydia with her lack of magical prowess. Even Kaius grunted and dug his heels into the ground as Vyrthur gestured, weaving streams of actinic light between his hands before casting the spell throughout the room.

All around them, there was the sounds of cracking and creaking, the soft sounds of pattering ice that could just be heard over the continuing battle between Durnehviir and the Falmer. With growing realisation and horror Serana and the others looked around at the dozens of frozen creatures, seeing the way that the ice was breaking away to reveal the frozen beings within.

"Oh come _on_…" Sofia spat, gripping her sword tighter as the falmer and chaurus within the chunks of ice began to shudder and break free at the magical summons.

Piece by piece the creatures twisted and squirmed, cracks forming in their bonds until pieces broke away. Some of their limbs broke out into the air once more, others had their gnashing maws freed to chitter and shriek in torment of the years they had spent locked away but they all soon found their prisons to have been unlocked. Each of the falmer, their eyes rendered blind like the rest of their kind found themselves free once more and their frozen existence has pushed them beyond the limits of sanity, even for a race such as theirs. The charus that had been locked away were equally driven insane despite their lack of sentience and without hesitation they scuttled their way towards Serana and the others.

Despite their sudden and overwhelming strength in numbers the corrupted beings and the insectoid monstrosities where suffering from their magical captivities and moved slowly and painfully, moving like old men riddled with arthritis. Their hungers for flesh were not diminished, and were fuelled to even greater heights from the insanity and torments as they were driven on by the will of the being that had trapped and now freed them.

Serana could see Vythur watching, casting spells with every flowing gesture of his hands and there was not a single moment that his attention waned from her. There was a growing hunger in his eyes, something that Serana couldn't pinpoint or understand exactly but it was there, deep within his mind as he directed the frozen creatures to attack.

But Serana and the others had their own abilities to call upon and they wasted no time in doing so. Kaius immediately went on the offensive, hacking two of the staggering falmer down with a single blow of his Skyforge Steel sword and gutting a chaurus as it leapt at him. Sofia and Lydia were already in the midst of the battle, hacking with their own sword and axe and throwing the odd bolt of magicka or two into those that Sofia could manage. As Serana began to fight off her own adversaries she saw with some amusement how two of the Falmer dressed in their chitinous armour were shrieking as a bubbling green energy ate into their protection, and then their flesh as Sofia's enhanced spell did its terrible work.

It was quickly obvious that the frozen falmer and chaurus were focussing upon the others to Serana's exclusion, only attacking her in sufficient numbers to keep her busy and distracted. Sofia and Lydia were quickly swamped by an ever increasing number of frostbitten and hypothermic creatures and Kaius despite his own best efforts was drawing the attentions of the largest and most powerful of the chaurus. These giant _reapers_ stood as tall as a troll and three of them rushed him, spitting corrosive streams of acid from their twitching mouthparts that splattered harmlessly off a ward but Serana knew he wouldn't be able to hold a ward blocking physical attacks for long.

The fear in her mind was replaced with a cold realisation almost with a physical click and Serana gave in to the temptation. The nearest falmer attacking her was thrown away with a flick of telekinetic energies where it splattered across a wall and before the others could close in she was already casting her next spell.

Summoning beings from oblivion was always a dangerous prospect but the previous months had allowed her to fine tune her abilities to some degree. Her experience with Atronachs had improved but while she had chosen to specialise she had also been _chosen_ from the other side. There was no particular way to describe the entity from oblivion, let alone name it but as she created its physical form from the living ice within the chantry, the creature that had 'adopted' her since Alftand pushed through into Nirn and possessed it.

So focussed on Kaius, one of the three reaper chaurus was utterly unprepared as two tonnes of ice rushed it with daedric fury. The chitinous horror only had a moment to flail away from the attack before the atronach dropped a stalactite like elbow down on its skull, wrapping the frozen limb around its neck before impaling it on the other. Crudely shaped into the rough appearance of a man, the giant ice golem laid about the smaller creatures threatening its summoner and allies, turning the floor of the chantry of a slush of spilled blood and crushed corpses within seconds.

"Kaius!" Sofia was wrenching her sword out of a falmer that was shrieking as she gutted it. "You need to kill that bastard!"

"He's controlling the Falmer. The longer he is alive the more that will come!" With a slightest press of her will, the atronach twitched, turning its attentions of the second of the reapers that recoiled from the stomping charge with a stream of hissing acid. Splattering down the inverted pyramid like torso of the summoned daedra, the giant insect had enough time to keen wildly as was smashed bodily into a wall, thrown to the floor and had its head crushed under a pillar of a leg.

Lydia was deep in the thick of the battle, cutting the half frozen falmer down as though she was scything wheat down with her axe. "We'll hold these bastards off!" She roared, turning her attentions to the last reaper which was beginning to scuttle backwards from the combined assault of magicka from Sofia and the attentions of the Atronachs. There was no mistaking the rictus like grin on the housecarls face under her spectacle helm and what it represented. She was out to gain another trophy from a reaper to match the first jostling about on the cord around her neck.

Seeing the three-metre-tall insects getting destroyed in front of him and the way that the released falmer were being cut down, Vyrthur had made a conscious decision and had fled through a set of doors leading further into the Chantry. Serana had seen him turn tail within seconds of her summoning of the atronach, and despite the numbers of falmer and smaller insects their half frozen states left them slow and clumsy and all too easy to dispatch.

"Serana! With me!"

Without thinking she had moved after Kaius as he went to follow the retreating Snow Elf, pausing only briefly to connect her mind with the malign intelligence infusing the tower of blood and acid splattered ice. The daedric sentience within the golem responded with an emotion that could only be partially described as pleasure as she directed it to destroy all enemies. Although there wasn't much time to see its savage frenzy commence before she was following in Kaius footsteps, she could certainly feel the bone crushing impacts of enchanted ice as it began laying about at its foes with impunity.

With Sofia, Lydia and the Atronachs holding off the tiny swarm of frozen creatures, Serana and Kaius moved quickly, kicking open the door that Vyrthur had escaped through without hesitation and finding themselves in a long amphitheatre devoid of any real ornamentation. Rows of desecrated or destroyed statues ran from one end to the other, beginning at the door that they entered and ending at the far end where a wide balcony revealed the incredible sight of the mountains beyond the chantry.

Although he had run from the sight of Serana and the others destroying his minions, the Vyrthur they suddenly found themselves facing was one of calm confidence as he waited for them. He was unarmed but dressed in an ancient set of armour that appeared almost as though it was made from polished ivory.

"An impressive display, but a wasted effort." He said in Serana's birth tongue, his words still infused with the echoes of power as he drew more and more magicka into himself. "You delay nothing but your own deaths!"

The burning sensation continued to grow within her limbs and its yearning desires were no longer as easy to contain. "Your life ends here, Vyrthur!"

For the first time, there was a hint of rage appear on his expression as he weaved an intricate tapestry of energies with his fingers. "Child, my life ended long before you were born!"

Too late she realised the nature of the spell he was casting, feeling the temperature of the hall drop even more than the World-Storms of 'The Pale' within seconds. A wall of energy that he threw at them was immensely powerful, far more powerful than any spell that she could hope to conjure. It froze the air solid, sucking all heat and moisture out of the room and for that split moment she realised just how he had trapped all of the beings in the chantry in their icy prisons.

While she had no defence against such a magical barrage, Kaius gritted his teeth and _shouted_. The blizzard of magicka met _Yol tor shul_ in a crash of energies so powerful that the chantry itself shuddered and the roof above their heads cracked like an eggshell. Chunks of half frozen, half molten masonry splattered down across the floor and through the steam and haze of magicka both she and Kaius could see the look of utter horror in Vyrthur's expression at the power of Kaius' _thu'um_.

His astonished cry was untranslatable and sounded as fluid as snow-melt as the Arch Curate spoke his own native tongue, spitting something that felt more like a curse than anything else before he rushed the two of them. The throbbing magical might that he wielded was unlike anything Serana had ever experienced, even after months of fighting alongside Kaius and facing down the likes of Durnehviir. It was migraine inducing, especially as his body was suddenly wrapped in a sheet of steel-like ice and conjuring a metre-long blade as clear as a glacier and shaped like a razored icicle.

"I won't let you ruin centuries of preparations!" he roared as he attacked the two of them, trading blows with Kaius with his ice blade that were that strong they actually shifted the vampiric Dragonborn back a couple of steps.

Serana twisted and ducked under what appeared to be a wild blow directed in her direction, only to see the way that he had shifted his weight to kick Kaius in the chest with a wildly powerful blow. The ice clad boot slammed with enough force that Kaius was propelled backwards as though thrown by a trebuchet, bouncing off the wall and leaving him stunned for a several long moments.

"Your blood will be mine! Your _pathetic_ powers are no match for me!"

More and more ice was flowing over his limbs as he roared his fury at her and his barrage of words almost matched his attacks in volume and number. It took all she could to grit her teeth and fight on, especially as Kaius was groggily picking himself up several dozen metres away.

Something within her mind snapped and time seemed to slow for a moment as he managed to twist her sword out of the way for a disabling strike. He was strong, far stronger than what he was meant to be and he used this strength to rip her sword out of her grasp with a ringing blow that she felt in the marrow of her arm. The icicle blade was moving before her conscious mind could react, but for her unconscious mind it was almost as though he was standing still.

Fingernails turned to claws and before either of them realised what was happening she had grasped him by the sword arm, wrenching him off his feet and bodily throwing him around and across the room. The nature of his blade and the way that the living ice was flowing down and over his arm ensured that he wasn't disarmed by the move, and while she was unarmed herself, she no longer required mortal weapons.

"A daughter of Coldharbour…" Vyrthur breathed, his voice quivering with excitement before breaking out into a cracking laugh. "At long last."

Standing in her partially torn clothes, Serana could hear the way that her breath rattling out of her misshapen maw, feel the way that her flattened nose and pointed ears twitched in a burning rage that always accompanied the flesh change. Her wings were half folded and tucked just behind her shoulders, the amendments that Kaius had assisted her with her armour assisting in the way that they could rip free without completely destroying her clothing for once. Each of her fingers were tipped with four-centimetre-long nails, her fangs had grown and were jutting from between her lips and every one of her limbs were pulsating with the unnatural strength granted to her in her vampiric form.

He may have not understood Vyrthur's words, but it was impossible for Kaius not to notice the emotion behind them as he too rose to his feet. His own sword had been thrown out of his grasp and had skittered away where it had been buried under a portion of the collapsed ceiling, but unlike Serana he had no trepidation in turning into his own vampiric form.

"**We do this together**." There was little humanity left in Kaius' voice or form as he stomped his way towards Vythur in his ice-meld armour. His own vampire had come out and the bastardised visage of a dragon and a daedra was horrible to behold even in comparison to Serana's twisted form.

"_Yes._" Serana growled. "_We will._"

Vythur's expression was unreadable behind the shimmering ice helm that covered his features like a funeral mask but he lowered himself down into a fighting stance without any sign of fear at facing such a pair of vampires. The icicle sword gleamed in the faint like from the balcony and before any of them realised the fight had already started.

Roaring with untold fury Kaius rushed headlong, his maw of serpentine fangs wide and Vyrthur was immediately put on the defensive. Wild blows of hardened fists struck nothing but air as the Snow Elf seemed to glide in and around Kaius' attacks, but the unnatural ice blade found no purchase on armour or flesh either. The two were also almost equal in abilities until Serana joined the fight and tipped the balance.

Hemmed in between the two vampires, Vyrthur shifted more and more onto the defensive, guarding himself from their attacks and countering with every available opportunity when it presented itself. He was stronger than Serana, but couldn't match Kaius' raw power, and while he was faster than Kaius he also couldn't contend with Serana's greater agility. One on one he would have been a capable opponent but against the two of them the battle had shifted away from his favour.

Within seconds of the fight commencing they had traded more blows than most mortals could've achieved in minutes, the power of the impacts cracking the floor and whipping up storms of powdered masonry and ice. While magically enhanced, it appeared that his blade of ice was unable to penetrate Kaius' armour and only managed a few minor scratches across his face that he simply ignored. It might have been a different matter against Serana with her lighter degree of protection, if he was capable of hitting her.

This time it was Serana's boot that struck Vyrthur in the chest, and he staggered under the blow. His ice armour was beginning to show cracks, and the claw marks that they both had delivered to him were no longer healing as quickly as they had been and Kaius followed her kick with a savage backhand across his face.

Ice splintered and cracked, and Vyrthur dropped to knee just in time to take another hammer blow to the head from Serana before he could gather his senses. The cracked ice broke into fragments that sprayed across the floor, revealing the pale features of the elf underneath as the two vampires continued their relentless assault, landing blow after blow into the splintering conjured armour. Finally, blood was spilt as Serana jammed her claws to the knuckle in his chest, ripping him off the ground with a single arm and throwing the elf a dozen metres away

Bleeding from wounds in his chest, face and arms where his armour had finally broken away, Vyrthur came to a skidding stop only after bouncing off the base of a destroyed statue near the balcony. Blood was dribbling across his chin as he coughed and despite everything he was still trying to get to his feet to continue the fight.

Until Serana stomped down hard on the ice blade, shattering it under the blow and wrenching the taller elf to his feet by the collar. "Enough Vyrthur. Where is the bow!"

Despite the pain of his injuries and the fact that a lung was slowly filling with blood, Vyrthur snarled into Serana's transformed face as she lifted him up. "How _dare_ you. I was the Arch-Curate of Auri-El, girl. I had the ears of a god!"

The sheer hate radiating between the two of them was almost intense enough to melt the last remnants of his conjured armour, but Serana's vampiric form was slowly subsiding. As she spoke her voice changed from the rasping of the Vampire Lord, to the feminine tones of the woman that she had been before the curse. "Until _the Betrayed_ corrupted you. Yes, yes. We've already heard this sad story."

The change from anger and indignation was as quick as his spells, and Vyrthur chuckled through a mouthful of blood. "Gelebor and his kind are easily manipulated fools. Look into my eyes child. You tell me what I am."

Close enough to feel his blood flecked breath on her face, Serana stared, trying to comprehend the meaning of his words. In the shadows of his pale blue eyes, eyes as cold as the ice that he had summoned to protect and arm him she saw a shadow of something far darker. It was as though a cloud was passing in front of the moons, heralding darkness and death but she could also see other subtle signs, in the curvature of his cheekbones, and the faint distortion of his upper lip.

Stunned, she saw the way that he recognised her understanding and his smile peeled back to reveal a pair of lengthened incisors. "You're… You're a vampire? But Auriel should have protected you…"

At the name of the god that he had once worshipped, Vyrthur spat a mouthful of bloody saliva that splattered down the front of his chest. "The moment I was infected by one of my own Initiates, Auri-El turned his back on me. I swore I'd have my revenge, no matter what the cost."

"You want to take revenge… on a god?"

The sickening chuckle was growing stronger and even before her eyes, Serana could see the way that some of his more minor injuries were healing as she held him. "Auri-El himself may have been beyond my reach, but his influence on our world wasn't. All I need was the blood of a vampire and his own weapon. The weapon that you and wretched companions seek."

His laughter grew louder and Kaius, standing nearby was shaking his own head in dark humour. He didn't understand their words but he was close enough to see the signs of vampirism in the ancient Snow Elf even before Serana translated for his benefit.

"The blood of a vampire… Auriel's Bow…" Thoughts were racing through Serana's mind and she could feel the strength in her arms holding Vyrthur up fade slightly. "It… It was you… You created the Prophecy."

Defeated, injured and outmatched by a pair of much stronger vampires, Vyrthur still laughed in a deeply wet chuckle. "A prophecy that lacked a single, final ingredient… the blood of a pure vampire. The blood of a Daughter of Coldharbour."

Slowly, in her mind Serana felt all the pieces come jumbling together. The prophecy was written within a series of Elder Scrolls but it wasn't the first or only time that a mortal prediction had appeared within them. As pieces of creation, the Scrolls were almost living things, capable of showing the past, present and future of events that had happened, had never happened and that might happen. With enough raw emotion or intent, events could be written within them for others to read and interpret as they wished, and Vyrthur had more than enough of both to be able to instil a prophecy of his own making into the fabric of reality.

"You were waiting…" She breathed, feeling the realisation sink home. "You were waiting all this time for someone with my blood to come along..."

The smile of triumph on Vyrthur's face was sickening but it was significantly marred by the sheer amount of damage he has sustained at the hands and claws of a pair of vampires who outmatched him in almost every way. It was not this expression or the emotion behind it that was eating into Serana but a torrent of others that had finally broken free of the mental dam she had erected against them.

Serana was certainly no stranger to fear, or hatred or the crushing lows of depression. She had attempted to take her life numerous times in the past, especially in the decades after her corruption, and had grown to hate herself and what she had become with an unrivalled passion. But this was different. This was not the same deep seated, burning rage that bubbled up from the core of her being and would rise to her aid when she was threatened. This was cold, lumpen and as heavy as a Dwemer colossus.

Staring into the blue-red eyes of a Snow Elf older than even she was she felt this new hate eat into her soul. Her entire life had been nothing but a plaything of fate, a tool to be used for a singular purpose and then discarded like a broken toy. Her own parents had purposely conceived her to be used as a sacrifice to Molag Bal to gift them with immortality. At twenty-one years of age she had been offered up as a sacrifice after a closed life ensuring that she remained pure for such an event and after that night of blood and defilement she had awoken in the broken remains of the castles entire populace as something greater, and lesser than human.

Even after her rebirth her parents had used her as a tool. First as a bargaining chip between Clan Volkihar and the other families within Haafingar, and then later by her mother as a shield between Valerica and her father's increasing madness. Isran and the Dawnguard had first used her as bait, and even Kaius had to begin with, seeing her as a _thing_ rather than a person.

She had lived for just over four thousand six hundred years, spending almost four thousand of them trapped between life and true death within Dimhollow and a total of twenty-one years as a human. With the exception of the gods and the likes of her father, Gelebor and Vythur she was easily one of the oldest beings in existence and that time suddenly hit her in the chest like an avalanche. Not once for her entire life had she truly felt as though she was making her own decisions, that she had been fated for one role or another without her own say in the matter and that _burned_.

The smouldering ice-fire in her chest grew and smothered the flames of the vampire like candle being struck by Kaius' _Thu'um_. She was a prisoner of fate, and even the Scrolls had written what had been chosen for her from the polluted intents of those weaker than she was. The elf in her hands, smirking in her face who had proven so _weak_ as to shift the blame onto the God of all Gods instead of accepting and living with his face. Her father, seeing his loss of his bid to become High King after the death of King Olaf One-Eye had blamed his loss on the sun and intended on using her to get revenge. Her mother, seeing her failure to contend with Harkon's descent into madness had shifted her blame onto her daughter and had chosen to lock her away than face her failures.

Weak. Everyone was weak and in that moment Serana realised her own strength. She had lived through everything that life and even the Elder Scrolls had thrown at her and was still standing at the end.

The smile that cracked her expression was not one of pleasure but was entirely of challenge and Vyrthur was taken aback at the sudden coldness that consumed the woman holding him by the half-frozen collar.

"Well, too bad for you." She growled, seeing the way that he was suddenly confused at the rapid change that had come over her. "I intend on keeping my blood, but let's see if yours has any power to it!"

His cry of alarm was cut short as her fangs lengthened and her jaws suddenly distended for a larger bite a second before she sunk them into his throat. He struggled and kicked, punching and lashing out at her in the vain attempt to pry her off but despite his own strength from over four thousand years of existence her couldn't fight her. The older the vampire, the more powerful they became but he was still nothing more than a half-blood, infected with the curse by another while Serana had gained hers directly from the Daedric Prince that it originated.

The first spurts of blood where drained without pause and within seconds Vyrthur's strength was already waning even as he continued to fight. Every punch, kick, or desperate grapple only seemed to drain his strength that little bit faster until he couldn't even hold himself up anymore and yet she continued to feed.

Serana drank him in, feeling the intoxicating power from the Snow Elf feed its way into her veins almost as quickly as she drained him. It was true power but the heady feeling she was receiving was not from draining the blood from an elder vampire but from a very strange, yet very simple fact. In all of her existence, in all of the times that she had fed she had been resistant, fighting and railing against her very nature but now she was accepting it. Of the thousands of feedings and people she had killed or otherwise drunk from, Vyrthur was the very first that she had willing _chosen._

The icy hatred in her heart spread through her body and she revelled in it, feeling the darkness of her soul fade and absorb itself into her being as though it had always been a part of her and not something she had fought against. It and her were the same being and it was not the vampire that drew its fangs out of Vyrthur's throat but Serana.

While drained, Vyrthur was not dead. It took more than exsanguination to kill a vampire, especially one as old the Arch-Curate and he weakly flopped in her grasp, his legs limply dangling onto the ground and without the strength to even raise his arms. Grunting with the effort, she gripped him by the waist and shoulder, her claws digging deep into his flesh until his eyes were boggling as she lifted him. There was no scream or sounds from the vampire, the lack of blood ensuring that he could do nothing as Serana strained, and ripped him in half before throwing him off the balcony and into the sunlight.

Even as the Arch-Curate vanished into the void and burned Serana struggled to feel anything but the hate within her. At that moment she hated the world and everything in it but it was not the burning hatred that she had that left her slaughtering everything within reach or transforming. For the first time in her life she felt like she was fully in control, not just of herself and her desires but also of her fate itself. She had faced a challenge and had beaten it.

"Remind me not to piss you guys off." Said a voice far behind her, and slowly she turned to see Lydia and Sofia entering the hall absolutely drenched in the falmer blood and chaurus ichor.

"His minions are dead." Lydia added, briefly comparing the sizes of the reaper fangs and noting that the newest one was at least a centimetre or two larger. "What happened to the elf?"

"He went to pieces." Kaius' tone was humorous but there was an edge of another emotion within it as his gaze was fixated on Serana. "Is everyone alright?"

"We're fine. We thought you guys would like to know that there's a room back there that looks filled with various weapons and items. All magical and whatnot. Plus a whole lot of gems and other pretties." There was no way that Sofia's smile would be leaving anytime soon as she was practically bouncing on the spot. "Also, ol'stinky out there did a lot better than we expected. The falmer are running off with their tails between their legs."

Serana could hear their words, but she wasn't listening. Not fully at least. The coldness of the hatred in her was still there, lingering and she was struggling to cope. She was still _her. _Still a vampire and without a home or family and a plaything of fate.

"Serana, are you alright?"

The soft voice from Kaius and the light pressure of a hand on her shoulder snapped a portion of her mind out of the fugue it was in and she met his gaze with her own. There was no hesitation or awkwardness, no sensation that she shouldn't look him in the eye or issue with his proximity and instead she smiled. Months ago there was no trust between any of them, and she was nothing to Kaius, Sofia or Lydia. Instead now she saw actual concern in Kaius' expression, and a keen interest from the other two women.

"I'm fine." She said honestly, surprising herself in the fact that she meant it.

Four thousand years without a family or a home was a long time, and she felt the way that Kaius gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze before releasing it to give Sofia a clap on the back. They were all laughing now, the tensions of the battle leaving their bodies in a flood. Serana could see Kaius' face crack in a grin behind the goatee, how Lydia was looking pleased with herself as she added new trinkets of bone and chitin to her collection and Sofia was busy giving each and every one of them a hug.

Four thousand years was certainly a long time without a home or a family, but it did appear that she had finally found one.


End file.
